I'm legitimately happy to see all these positive posts about Dads. I have an awesome relationship with both my parents and I sometimes take it for granted until I hear about people who don't have as great of a relationship. I had an old roommate who probably only talked to his parents once a month, his Dad once a quarter, and this is at age 23-24. Ive talked about the combination effect of my parents on me before, but my Dad has given me a lot of things I take for granted. An analytical approach to thinking and problem solving, a relentless curiosity and need to seek knowledge, and an ability to have a well rounded approach to alot of things. We are pretty different socially and inter-personally, but I have so much respect for him. I talk to my Mom almost every day and my Dad on the phone every other week or so, but when we get on the phone, we always talk for at least an hour about alot of stuff. The man has created a 7 figure annual revenue company out of nothing, originally working out of his lead investor's basement. His work ethic is insane and his company could realistically be twice as large but he refuses to fight dirty and thinks the best out of everyone. He's kind of goofy engineer and wears cheesy Disney ties with nice suits that make me and my Mom cringe, but its amazing to see how much people love him. Meeting random well dressed European diamond dealers in Armani suits at trade shows asking why I don't have a mustache like my father and how they love his ties. He has a way about him that I can't help but respect. Supposedly to be a beautiful weekend. Hopefully some mischeif tonite, beautiful day for a big boozy art fair in my neighborhood tomorrow, and then heading home on Sunday morning for Father's Day and my youngest sister's graduation. She's 11 years younger than me and is graduating from HS. I'm still pretty stunned by it. Its surreal. She and my 20 year old sister were always "little girls", we still call them that as a pair, and both of them being away at college next year is unreal. So proud of the women they've grown into. We have a group text with them and my other sister and it has me laughing hysterically at least twice a week. We all have a great relationship and I'm incredibly thankful for it.
I hate the "Yard Salies". Professional yard sale dwellers who get up at dawn on Saturday to sniff out shit not good enough for their original owner anymore. They also think EVERYTHING on your property is up for barter. For instance last time we had one, we have this old-fashioned iron park bench on our porch. I put a sign on it that said "Not For Sale". You can guess what happens next. This mastodon of a woman walks right up on our porch, looks at it, looks at me, looks at it, looks at me..... "Is this for sale?" "Um, no. That's why the sign is there." "Five bucks." "Seriously, NO." Seriously.
I hate yard sales. Except for when I find something awesome furniture wise. Even then I'd rather use CraigsList. I realized that my posts made me sound ungrateful for my parents. I'm not. They taught me and my brothers the value of hard work, reading, compassion, independence, simplicity, and integrity. Mom was always there when we had games or whatever, and Dad provided. I genuinely do appreciate everything it took to get me and my brothers raised on a shoestring budget, a wing, and a prayer.
I love yard sales, thrift shops, craigslist. I love finding unique items on the cheap. I like getting a good deal. Pretty much all my clothes, nick knacks, and minor items around the house are used or hand me downs. Part of this is me being cheap/frugal and part of it is being poor. WINNING. I wish I had more time to actually attend garage sales. I suppose if I was really dedicated I could get up extra early before work to check some out but I can't muster up enough fucks to make that happen. I am more often found at Goodwill, Dirt Cheap, or browsing CL. I seriously love Craigslist, though the pet section has almost gotten me into trouble numerous times....
There are two goodwills within a 3 mile radius of my house. I don't go there because all my moneys will be spent on furniture I want to bring home and repaint and repair. Which SOUNDS cool. Except that somehow the men in my life seem to take up 110% of my time.
We are pretty much good on furniture. Most of it was used when I bought it except for our mattress set (because having a good bed is important and also...used bed=gross) and our office desks and chairs. We also live in a very small house so there is no cramming random armoires and dressers in random nooks. There are no nooks. I am really not looking forward to the eventual living room furniture upgrade. Between the cost and the anxiety of picking something that is durable and that I won't hate after 5 years, that is a task I am not excited about.
We had - furniture wise - beds, dining table(s), and a coffee table when we moved. A couple of bedroom side tables. No couches. No chairs. No ottomans. No shelves. Craigslist has been AMAZING for that. I got a red microfiber pullout (possibly the most uncomfortable pullout on the planet) for under 200 bucks, then a sofa / loveseat for downstairs in a nice neutral color, a bed for the guest room (new mattress tho), and I'm looking for anything I can find for my son's room.
The thing I don't like about yard sales is sharing the same air with cheapskates. They'll see a thirty dollar item, in great condition, for two dollars and say "I'll give ya a dollar for it." DIE.
I had pretty much an entire household's worth of items going into my marriage except for our office furniture. The cool thing you'll find, if you haven't already, is that by living in a military town you are going to be around people moving every week who are trying to get rid of all excess before they move. There is a lot of nice, new stuff to pick through because of this.
Can I get 5 twenties? Is there a name for getting a hundred dollars in cash in 4 20's, 1 10, 1 5 and 5 1's ? Like, if you got $500 in cash, and all 100's were okay, you'd say, "large bills are fine." But, is there a common term for not wanting just a hundred dollar bill? Also, this Kings - Rangers game is killing me!
Re: Can I get 5 twenties? "Give me change." There isn't a word as far as I know about that specific way of breaking it down. You usually have to explicitly say what denominations you are expecting. It bugs me that the common way of asking for coins at the bar is jingle. "Gimmie a dollar in jingle." Is coins so fucking hard to says? Jesus. It is even fewer syllables.
Re: Can I get 5 twenties? Everything is "Cool Code" in The Industry. Cuba Libre is a rum and Coke. Night Club Security Personell is a rent-a-goon. "Im gonna do a lap" is "I need to locate the drunkest woman in here."
"Pull the trigger" Vomit in the bathroom so you can keep drinking. I really detest some of the new assholes at work. I much prefer the old assholes. They are crustier and more broken in. They also don't talk about pulling the trigger like it makes them cool.
If you need to vomit so you can keep drinking then you should take a look at drowning yourself in the toilet. Fucking amateurs.
The worst part of the WDT for me is that I work retail, and weekends are never free. I want to add to the conversation, and never can. Once I have free time to write what comes to mind, it's three days and at least seven pages later. But there's some shit I want to say about my dad, so in three days, I'll be back-tracking the fuck out of this conversation. Carry on.
I don't have a great relationship with either of my parents. My dad and I often argue about mundane, irrelevant bullshit to the point where I'd now rather just not say anything and sit in silence or go to another room. If I were to move out now, I'd probably not talk to either of them for long stretches of at least a few months in between calls. I'm just fundamentally different to my parents in how I think, which is partially derived from how they thought and behaved around me and others and from the actions and reactions that they've taken inside and outside the family and the consequences that result, if that makes sense. For example, my mom will go out of her way to help one of her friends, even if they had burned her in the past in some way, while I am completely the opposite, because I know that my friend (and other randoms) would not help me if I was having difficulty with something, something that my own past experience has taught me. I don't even have friends anymore because I got tired of being dropped and excluded by them so I just drifted to my own path. Also, if you had bought your dad something for birthday/Christmas/Father's day, would he appreciate it and use it? My dad never does. I bought him a double CD one Christmas of his favourite band - took him only 4 years to play it. tl/dr: My parents like pretty much every other person aside from me. I've stopped caring about others and them for the most part.
Re: Can I get 5 twenties? Find someone who hates the bar scene/industry more than Crown...you can't. Seriously, sometimes I worry if you were found as a toddler on top of a blood covered bar where you parents had just been murdered in a drug deal gone wrong. This isn't meant to be super serious, but it does have some gravity to it. Could possibly be spun into its own thread... I dated a girl for awhile in the fall and we've recently become reacquainted. As friends, who knows if more, whatever. Being as such, she's told me some stuff she's heard. Back tracking, I met her through the female friend of my old roommate, who we will call D, friend was Mel, and the girl I dated was Sink. Well, part of the time I dated Sink, there was friction cause Mel was one of her good friends, I had "hooked up" with Mel for a hot minute one night a good 9 months before I met Sink. The hookup consisted of us making out for a few minutes, her unzipping my pants, going down on me for 30 seconds, and then me saying we should go back to her place and driving her home, where she puked, I made sure she was ok, and then left. Well, despite nothing coming up for the next X amount of months, once Sink and I started dating, Mel informed her that I had "raped" her. Naturally, upon learning this, I flew the fuck off the handle. I calmed down after Sink told me she didn't believe it, it was fine, etc... We broke up, partially due to Mel being up in everyone's shit among other things. Well, Sink was out with Mel and my old roommate tonite. I have been broken up with Sink for 6 months. I haven't talk to Mel or my old roommate beyond a passing greeting in about 9 months. Naturally, I came up AGAIN. Despite Sink defending me, which I truly respect, endless shit was talked about me and Mel yet again said "well, JWags is a rapist." I got so upset about hearing this, via text, that I left the bar. There is literally nothing worse you can do to a guy than throw a false rape allegation around. This girl has done it with another guy, as well, who was a late night drunken hookup partner. I'm a calm, understanding person and I literally shake with rage thinking about it, and writing about it. My best friend in college was buddies in HS with a kid who was accused of rape at prom. Made city-wide news, couldn't walk at graduation, lost a college scholarship, case was thrown out just before court when the victim recanted and admitted they had consensual sex and she was embarrassed. This shit isnt fair to both guys and real victims. Its disgusting. I'm meandering, but I literally have not met someone in my adult life that I think less of than this girl. Its one thing to attempt to sabatoge your "friend"'s relationship out of jealousy or spite. Its another think entirely to attempt to do it by slandering and tossing one of the most vile accusations, in a flippant and casual manner for effect. I hope she gets syphilis.
Been at my duty station for a month now and still don't have a car. They are crazy expensive out here in Alaska and I'm trying to be economically responsible. You'll be lucky to find anything under 12k at the dealerships and the private party thing just hasn't worked out like I've wanted it to. I just want to get a semi-decent vehicle that I don't need to put a thousand dollars into a week after I buy it, and I don't want car payments. I understand a used car is going to need some repairs and not be perfect, but it shouldnt be this hard to find a decent 3k-7k dollar vehicle. Question for all, is it really that much of a hassle to get the car you're selling inspected by a mechanic? I've never sold a car myself so I don't know. I'm not a dick about it, but I don't want to buy a piece of shit and you want my money. You spend an hour of your time for an inspection that I pay for, and I give you said money. Maybe I'm being too demanding during this whole process, but if you're not willing to get an inspection then it says three things, to me at least. You either really don't have the time, you're trying to hide something that an average buyer can't spot or are just really lazy/not trying to sell your car. Cars are a lot of money and to spend thousands in CASH blindly, just isn't something I'm interested in doing. I'm not a mechanic. So on that note, going to purchase a road bike tomorrow so I can at least get around in the mean time. This way I can take my time and not have to worry about buying a piece of shit lemon vehicle. Anyways, I'll save money that would otherwise go to gas,repairs and insurance, at least until I can find a decent snag on a car. For any bikers out there can you give me a rundown on the difference between what would be classified as a "road bike" and a "touring bike"? The descriptions seemed pretty similar, the only thing I really noticed was the road bikes I saw were lighter in weight.
Wags, I don't hate the bar industry. It's just an easy target on here. And I've been around it long enough where I can... And WILL make fun of it as much as I want. I'm rubber and you're glue. As to the second part of your post, I have been there. And it nearly ruined my life. It happened around 2000-01 area when I took a girl out on a first date. Traditional, and Inpaid: movie, mediocre restaurant, then she wanted to go to a club. This was back in days when Rohypnol and GHB attacks were happening in bars, the place we were going to had incidents of that I was aware of. I made the note of telling her to not set her drink down unattended. The next day, she would use this advice the next day to accuse me of drugging her because, you know, we went Second Base later that night. Nothing heavy, I left her house with no sex having happened. She told her friend I roofied and took advantage of her. It didn't take long before the rumour got back to me, and sure enough I saw her at the bar we both frequented. I didn't storm out, I was too angry. I marched up to her and her group of friends, shoved a finger right in her face and insulted her and called her out in every way I could think of. How fucking DARE she try to ruin my life over literally nothing and you can bet I was going to express myself over it. I left her in tears and her friends stunned. It was washed after that, in the end she was the Bad Guy but like you, I ask: Why the FUCK do women do this? Why would somebody lower themselves as to ruin somebody, perhaps even get them thrown in jail and REALLY ruin them, over nothing? What are they afraid of, slut shaming? Suck it the fuck up and just admit you were horny and obeying nature like the rest of us. Wags, get the hell in this girl 's face and call her everything but a woman. You need to establish who the villain is here or it won't end.